An Avalanche Beacon is short ranged and meant to quickly help your companions find out the spot where you are buried under the snow after being caught in an Avalanche. The Beacons are turned on before a ski or snowmobile trip and set on Send. After one or more of your companions are caught and swept down the mountain by the Avalanche the survivors set their Beacons on Receive and begin the search from the position anyone saw you in the snow cloud.

With less than 20 minutes to complete the search, it is fast, intense, and short ranged work. No one is going to clear much rock hard Avalanche Debris. Searchers must literally get right on top of the victim to find them.

If it was rock, etc. It my not work and if you were not buried you could probably see the victim before the beacon did anything. They don't work at any really effective range for any other type of search. Realistic maximums are between 30m to 50m for Avalanche Beacons.

These type of Beacons are specialized pieces of gear made for backcountry travel where there is a chance of an Ice or Snow Avalanches.

That said, the biggest Snow Avalanche I ever set off was hiking in the Canadian Rockies in May. Fortunately for me and the group, it was a wet snow Avalanche and we were traveling well apart and above the slide area.